shew that now he had given the Sabbath a perfect rest for ever that there should be no more ceremoniall worke he had then fulfilled all the ceremonies the sinne of man was payd for and all the troublesome ceremonies of the law were abrogate and to shew that the Sabbath was ended he celebrated it in his grave and then upon the Munday the Iewes Munday the day of his resurrection hee rose againe to shew that ours must be an active life not in idle circumstances to passe it away in ceremonies as in the law but to remaine as an eternall Sabbath for ever we keepe a publique Sabbath to God though not in the same time and in memory of the same thing yet in the remembrance of a farre greater benefit 6 From the apparitions of Christ To conclude the point our Lord graced this constitution of the Church by his own presence most of his apparitions were upon the eighth day as wee may see in the Gospell that day that he rose still he glorified it with his presence eight dayes after he rose he came and shewed himselfe to his Disciples and the next day to Thomas and the rest of the Disciples and so for the time of 40. dayes that he continued on earth after his resurrection look how many Mundayes of the Iewes there was which is our Lords day so many apparitions hee made upon that day whereby they gathered that it was the will of the Lord and that hee meant to make that day glorious by his comfortable apparitions for still as I said his apparitions were upon that day he was absent all the weeke before hee appeared to none except it were to some few persons as Peter and Iohn but he made no publique apparition but onely upon the Lords day And upon this the Church of God was induced to make this change and we see it acted Acts 20.10 Acts 20.10 1 Cor. 16. and this chapter is a publique testimony of it and likewise in Rev. 1. Rev. 1. Saint Iohn saith I was in the spirit upon the Lords day which is generally taken by the fathers of the Church and by the Interpreters of the Gospell for this that we hold instead of the Sabbath day But because these kinde of people will never be satisfied except wee can answer their reasons as well as they can heare ours give me leave a little to goe forward in this poynt and heare what they can object for this Arguments against the change of the Saâ—bâ—th which thinke the Iewish Sabbath still to remaine in force I have spent the time against my minde and purpose therefore I will but name the chiefe heads of their arguments and refute them They conclude therefore that there is no certaine warrant for the changing of the Iewish Sabbath to ours 1 There is no written word for it because there is no direct written Scripture to prove it we have no Text of Scripture to worke it into us But for that we are to answer them Answ The Apostles in this guided by the spirit of God whatsoever the Apostles did being guided by the spirit of God their practise is a sufficient direction to us it is warrant enough that they have done it before us For so we have in many other things the practise of the Apostles to be a rule of our faith Christ not determining many particular things in the Church but leaving it to the discretion of the wise those that should be well furnished with knowledge for the directing of things in their places where they were therefore that which the Apostles did it was the act of Christ for they did it not of themselves but from a higher person from him that sent them Another reason they have and that is this 2 It is a part of the decalogue the decalogue or tenne Commandements are a perpetuall law but this is a part of the decalogue therefore this is a perpetuall law and the precepts that be in the tenne Commandements are all morall they are precepts that belong to all men to all times and places in the world Thirdly God is pleased to call the Sabbath an everlasting covenant God cals the Sabbath an everlasting covenant Deut. 12.16 I have made an everlasting covnant saith the Lord Deuter. 12.16 and in divers other places hee cals it a perpetuall covenant betweene me and my people Israel therefore it follows it must last as long as the world lasts and consequently it cannot be changed for then we alter the covenant of God 4 It was aucienter then Moses A fourth objection is this all the laws that are ancienter then Moses are immutable but this was more ancient then Moses law for it was given to man in paradise the Lord there by resting upon the seventh day did consecrate the Sabbath to be kept although some of the Fathers say as Iustin Martyr Iustin Martyr that they did not keepe it before the Floud but yet there was the institutioÌ„ of it therfore seeing it was a law given before Moses and before the fall of man it follows it is immutable and unchangeable because if there be any change it must be for imperfection and if there be any imperfection it must be for sinne and there was no sinne before the fall Therefore whatsoever was commanded before the fall was so perfect that it could not be altered it had no respect of imperfection in it 5 The cause of it is perpetuall And lastly the perpetuall cause of a law makes the law continue if the cause of it remaine the law must also continue and therefore there are many lawes that are made and abrogate againe because there is no use of them they were made in such a time for such things and the cause failing the law ceaseth but where the law hath a perpetuall cause there the law is in force to continue alway but the cause of the Iewish Sabbath continueth the meditation and contemplation upon the works of God and the holy operation of his hands this is the cause of the Sabbath and this alwayes continueth therefore the Iewish sabbath must continue These are the prime and chiefe grounds of their arguments I will answer a word to these and so conclude First in that they say the decalogue or ten Commandements is a law perpetuall Ans to Ob. 2. The Iewish Sabbath partly ceremoniall and bindes the consciences of all men It is true as farre forth as it is morall it doth but those parts that bee ceremoniall as the Sabbath is partly morall and partly ceremoniall and as it is moral it binds but as it is ceremoniall it doth not For the moralitie of the Sabbath is this to worship God in a publique service that wee are bound unto that which is ceremoniall that we should serve him upon such a day upon the seventh day rather then any other that doth not binde there is no part of moralitie in that that
DOOMES-DAY OR A TREATISE OF THE RESURRECTION of the BODY Delivered in 22. Sermons on 1. Cor. 15. Whereunto are added 7. other Sermons on 1. Cor. 16. BY The late Learned and Iudicious Divine MARTIN DAY Doctor in Divinity Chaplaine in Ordinarie to his Majestie and sometimes Rector of S. Faiths LONDON Matth. 22.31 Have you not read what God hath spoken to you touching the Resurrection of the Dead LONDON Printed by T. H. and M. F. for Nathanael Butter and are to be sold at the signe of the Pide Bull neere Saint Austins gate 1636. To the Right Reverend Father in God and his most Ho. Lord JOSEPH By the Divine Providence Lord Bishop of EXCESTER MY LORD REligious spirits are usually Indulgent Patrons to Orphanes They imitate in this Act him who sayd I will bee a Father to the Fatherlesse I doubt not but that I shall finde your Honour of this generous disposition to these printed Posthumes of Doctor Dayes licensed by Authority and now seeking to your Lordship for protection I have adventured to present these papers comming to my hands to your Honour hoping the childe wil be wel liked for his Fathers sake who was wel known unto and entirely beloved of your Hon. in his primitive time in Cambridge as also while hee was our Pastor heere continued it towards him in his charge in your Lo. Diocesse even untill his dissolution however I have done this to shew my readines upon any occasion of service to your Lordship Thus craving your favour to shelter and fence this worke from open depravers and to continue your love to the Authors memory I humbly take leave being Your Lordships Servant NATH BUTTER To the Readers YOu cannot expect that these Sermons should have such exact politenesse and neat dressing as if the Authour had lived to revise them Yet you may discover Dr Dayes spirit expression method and matter to speake in all of them praesentemque refert concio quaeque patrem I would wish you then to read them without any prejudicate opinion as thâ—y are exercises whose Authour was famous in his time and which cannot chuse but yeeld you matter of counsell and comfort You have but few Authours in English upon this Epistle and fewer upon these subjects Lose by reading of them you cannot gaine you may I doubt not but they will proove beneficiall to the whole Church for whose sake I have published them Thus wishing you to gather hony out of these where it may be had I rest Yours N. B. 1 COR. 15.29 What shall they doe that are baptised over the dead if the dead rise not at all Why therefore are they baptised over the dead THis gratious Apostle the blessed organ and instrument of the holy Ghost doth so wondrously dispute his cause and contrive his arguments for the maintaining of this holy article of our faith the resurrection of the body that as Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysost in locum he leaves nothing unfetched either from God or men for in five or sixe verses before the text he disputes from the omnipotencie of God in raising Christ his Sonne He hath discoursed also of Christs kingdome and of the delivery of the kingdome of his mediation and of the end of all things the perfect consummation of all that God may governe and be all in all Now he descends to a lower kinde of sphere to arguments taken from the actions of men and presidents here below upon the earth And he saith that there were certaine men in the world that were baptised for dead that is they are baptised in a certaine hope of the resurrection of the dead whose labour is lost and their faith frustrate and to no purpose if they have not the end of that whereof they now make profession here So some expound it But that is to bring us backe into the same labyrinth we were in before Verse 14. for he saith before that our hope is vaine and our Preaching vaine if there be no resurrection Therefore waving that opinion I take it that the Apostle speakes of some other more peculiar and particular cause that is concerning the state of the Church of God in persecution wherin men despairing of helpe in this world despairing of any life or contentment they did come and offer themselves in a voluntary martyrdome and tooke the baptisme of death that is they were baptised to this purpose being willing to offer themselves as dead men to persecution for the Gospell sake which they would not have done unlesse they had beene certainly assured of the resurrection of the body Other sences there be but I must proceed in order from one to another and labour to finde out the likeliest for in truth there are innumerable many and the place is very difficult Onely two things we are most sure of in this argument and discourse here set downe to our hand First that whatsoever this baptising over the dead was and therein is all the difficultie yet it was a thing that was publike notorious and knowne to the Corinthians it was a matter that was not obscure to them although it be to us For the Apostle speakes not to them in clouds but by way of familiar and evident example thereby to winne their judgements to this conclusion concerning the bodies resurrection Secondly another thing is that whatsoever this baptisme was yet certainly it was a thing of much force it was a great argument to prove that which the Apostle intended For it is not his manner to deale weakely in proving and disputing but he useth all the strength of the holy Ghost as Chrysostome saith Chrysost that is as much strength and demonstration and evidence of the spirit as a man can be capable of And so upon this ground we must gather that that opinion is most likely and to be imbraced that maketh most for the resurrection of the body And if there be any sence of more force then other or any sence more pertinent than other to prove that maine conclusion certainely that is the sence which the Apostle intends For all those that be of lesser weight and smaller moment they are besides the Apostles purpose Questionlesse if there be any vigour or power in any more than another we must imagine that that is it the Apostle aymed at and that he would have us to ayme at All the doubt comes out of the ambiguitie of this one word Baptisme While some take this baptisme for the sacramentall washing others againe take it for a ceremoniall washing either such as were in the Law among the legall ceremonies or such as were knowne in the common course of life the washing of the bodies and corpes of the dead when they were layd forth for the Coffin Concerning these words for the dead there is also some doubt some expounding it for sinne some for sinners and some for them that are naturally dead that is when the spirit in the common course of nature is
16.17 when he comes to Lidia there Sathan had entred into a woman and she having the divell in her Verse 18. uttered these words of Paul and Silas These are the men that teach the way of truth but the Apostle understanding that the divell spake that for some cozening for the hinderance of the Gospell the Text saith he grew into vexation and trouble of spirit and commanded the divell to come out of her Another time he comes to Paulus house Acts 13.8 and there Elymas the sorcerer opposeth him whereupon being moved with griefe he growes to those high termes that he never spake the like language but onely there Verse 10. Thou full of all subtilty thou childe of the divell wâ—lt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of God these things therefore occasioned him new pangs and brought his death on multiplied his sorrowes and made him say as he doth here in the vexation of his spirit I dye daily For these Idolaters for these opposers for the inward troubles from his own flesh for outward troubles from his own corrupt nation these things so every where beset him that hee could make no evasion or escape Therefore hee sweares By the rejoycing I have in Iesus Christ our Lord I dye daily But the chiefe and maine thing that made the Apostle dye daily to dye upon the nest as it were it was the care of the Churches 2 Cor. 11.28 29 2 Cor. 11. the great compassion he had that great Armado of cares and businesse and toyle that lay upon him As he saith The trouble and care of all the Churches lyes upon me Who is weake and I am not burthened who is offended and I burne not The griefe that he conceived to see men back-sliders to see how hardly men were brought to it and how ill they lived in their profession that they lived not answerable to their calling in Christ to see men fall from grace to this world as he saith of Demas He hath forsaken me 2 Tim. 4.10 and imbraced this present world these strange alterations and turnings in the Church of God did so vexe and trouble and grieve his spirit that he could take no rest or repose in any thing in the world but was as a dead man free among the dead and he cryes out here I protest by the reioycing I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily I dye daily This is a great aggravation of the miserie To dye is the bane of nature the horrible of horribles which none of us all can indure to heare of the least approach of it casts us into infinite feares and horrour but to dye daily to know no end of death no period to determine it but to be in the continuall act of dying here is the height of all the patience of the Saints As they dye so they dye daily there is no time that shines perfectly cleare to them but all is in cloudes and disasters and misfortunes here I dye daily Every day brings its burthen with it that as we begge our daily bread so there is a daily death and we have not such assurance of our daily bread as we have of our daily death Men often by fasting pull downe themselves and keepe downe their bodies that they eate not their bread but there is no day but a Christian tasts of death Though hee have no taste of bread or any rellish of victuals yet hee shall be sure to taste of death I dye daily as though my life were of steele and my bones of marble as though this short threed of mine were of Adamant so thy terrours worke upon me Like a moath that frets a garment and leaves nothing but flockes and dust and ruine of the goodliest garment so the terrors of God the terrours of conscience the terrours of the world the discontents and feares the malice of the divell the malice of some false brethren and the falling away of others these things did so worke upon him and so vexe him that they did even bring him to nothing that there was no houre but it was full of distraction and perturbation I protest by the rejoycing I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily This daily death is the generall condition of Gods Saints Saint Paul suffered it not alone but he left it also as our inheritance he dyed daily and we may say who doth not dye daily He that knowes Christ and hath a will to follow him he shall finde his life in this life to be a continuall death wrastling with him and tyrannizing over him as Iob saith My soule rather desires strangling Iob 7.15 than to live as I doe Saint Paul had his death and the ministers of the Gospell now have their death and though they live in a time of peace and plenty yet they want not their death to gnaw on them The envy of men the malice and slander and villanous reports whereby they defame and disgrace their brethren to the pit of hell the non-proficiencie of men their scorning of the word these are as death to a man that is sensible of God or of his government The Apostle seemes to make all the day being divided into two parts to be a continuall dying The day is either naturall or artificiall and both these are full of deaths the day naturall is that we worke in and sleepe in the day artificiall is that onely which we worke in in the common course of nature and in both these there were deaths to the blessed Apostle In the day time the time of worke I dye daily in all the passages of my life in all the practises and exercises of religion whether it be Prayer Meditation or Teaching and admonishing the people In all these exercises I dye daily In my prayers I dye with coldnesse and dulnesse I have not zeale to wing my affections to God In my preaching I dye with weakenesse and neglect I cannot set forth that glorious word as I ought to doe In my Meditations I dye with sluggishnesse and lazinesse that I cannot hold on my beginnings in that course In my Meate and drinke and other refreshings I dye I am eyther too excessive or else too superstitiously vaine and fearefull Nay in that very time of the day wherein nature brings rest and repose in the time of night when I should sleepe and rest I dye in my very sleepe That is full of startling dreames and fearefull phantasies and perturbations to vexe my soule so that every day I dye whether it be in that part of the day which is for worke or that which is for rest every where I dye When the Sunne shines it is as a blazing starre that opens the day to mischiefe and discomfort When the Moone appeares it is as a Commet or candle to waken me to distracted thoughts The Stars are as so many clouds that drowne me in darkenesse My houres are as Iobs messengers that bring mee sad reports
us take it and put it into Gods Iewell-house where it hath its proper and naturall consistence Now for the substance of the sentence 2 The substance of the verse and the two Antagonists it is betweene two great Antagonists and adversaries good manners and evill words and which gets the victory over other evill words corrupt good manners that is they put them downe and so get the victory that they have no place or abiding any more in a man so that it cannot be knowne where they were The word manners First Antagonist Good manners although it be well understood yet we may adde something to give further light to it It signifieth a certaine habite in a man that is acquired with long labour and diligence and exercise by which a man hath gotten it to himselfe For there is no man borne with good manners but he is borne as a beast as Aristotle Aristotle saith a little childe is more harsh untractable than a beast a man were better keep and bring up a young Lyon he may doe it with lesse labour then to bring up a childe For because God will punish sinne in the first reliques of it therefore to shew the misery and deformity of it he suffers in children the way of impatience and harshnesse that it is the great and wondrous mercy of God that ever they should come to perfection and that they should have nurses to beare with them to humour them and follow them in all the wayes of their corruption So that manners are not naturall unlesse it be brutish manners but those here spoken of are not gotten but with a great deale of diligence What a stirre have we to over-master that filth and corruption that is in our children with stripes with putting them to schoole with exhortations with all the meanes in the world and all too little to beate out of them that naturall corruption and that pestilent humour that is crept into them by originall traduction of sinne But now the Lord hath given to the education of parents and to those of discretion by long custome to be guardians and guides to these little ones that the rudenesse of their nature and the barbarousnesse of their affections might be mollified As the wilde ground the husbandman by long tillage of it and the wilde Vine by pruning and cutting of it at the last he brings the wilde ground to be good soyle and the wilde Vine to be a fruitfull one so the Lord hath given a blessing upon the gift of education that at last he makes these wilde oats to be good corne in the harvest of God and he settles good manners where there was nothing but furious brutishnesse And when they are so setled by long labour by feare of punishments by hope of rewards and by such meanes as doth cultivate the ground of God although it be long before they be brought to this for there is much warre betweene these two adversaries in the Text when these good manners and thus settled then they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sitting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Sedes Indoles Mos. taken from a word which signifieth to sit and keepe residence For being thus ingrafted and keeping residence they are not easily wrought out againe for they come to be as it were a second nature the law of manners is not easily changed as Saint Basile Basile saith because they were first imprinted when the minde of the childe was tender therefore the impression goeth the deeper and continues the longer When the Lord settles the power of his grace in a man it is not easie for the divell to deface that impression and he shall never doe it utterly Although there be divers actions that may deface it in shew and for the present time but the Apostle here speaks in another respect although hee may extend his speech to the manners of grace among the Corinthians But these things that he speaketh of common profession common religion taught they were brought unto them by God who is the husband man as Christ saith Ioh. 15. I am the true Vine Ioh. 15 1. and my Father is the husbandman This culture whereby by diligent labour they were brought from the harsh Idolatry of the heathen to know Christ to come to the knowledge of his faith of his life of his death of his miracles of the benefits they received by the communion of his body and bloud of his blessed Resurrection and the promise of the reuniting of our bodies and of the returne of our spirits these were manners that grace had taught them besides the common profession of Religion for a man may make a profession of religion and yet have no grace Now if these manners remaine in a man he is past the danger of all the pawes of Sathan The divell shall not be able to plucke up these plants Math. 15.13 which our heavenly Father hath planted as our Saviour Christ saith But if we goe no further then common reason and profession and content our selves with the outward forme of religion then comes that to passe here spoken of that evill words corrupt good manners and though good manners be setled of themselves and keepe their residence strongly yet the mightinesse of our enemy is such that he will pull them out except they have a deeper impression by the spirit of God made in us Now we come to the other adversary which is Evill words Second Antagonist Evill words The manners are called good and the language ill not according to the estimation of men but according to the sheckle of the Sanctuary the ballance of the Sanctuary it is that that maketh good to be good and evill to be evill For many languages among men are accounted good that are base and evill and many manners are accounted evill that are perfect and good Therefore if we will examine what manners are good we must not repaire to the Courts of men to the fashions of men for sometime they are accounted most unmannerly amongst them that are the best mortified and sanctified men of all others Nor when we come to examine what are evill words what is wicked discourse and speech we must not measure it by mans iudgement but according to the Rule and Canon and square of the word of God It is that that judgeth men to be good or ill It is to be observed that the word here hath a great elegancie in it For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth such manners as are of great use and profit And so indeed from all kinde of goodnesse from all honest parts there is great profit profit for a mans selfe profit to his body profit to his soule profit to his state profit to his neighbour by his example so good manners be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things of use and profit whereas the actions of ungodly wicked men they are unprofitable As the Apostle saith
Have no fellowship with the unprofitable workes of darkenesse This language here this ill language Ephes 5.11 it is called Caba taken from a word used in warre Quaere The Greeke word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and indeâ—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth fearefull cowardly sloaâ—hfull the Cabaly they are flying away still and running backe so in evill there is nothing but trembling and feare and running backe and want of security a man knowes not where to lurke safe therefore he turnes him this way and that way and runs before any man persecute him as the Prophet saith We see the quality now of these Adversaries Now we come a little to their fight how they meete together and who overcomes Corrupt good manners Good manners being well settled in us and comming to be a second nature Thiâ—d poynt the action betwixt Evill words and good manners they corrupt them as it were the spirit of God being our guardian they become impregnable against the divell But if they have a small and slacke guard and are intrenched onely within the bounds of reason and common religion or a perfunctory profession then Sathan is powerfull and the examples of the world are bewitching and a mans owne flesh his owne selfe is false to himselfe and in a moment or short time they make such a battery and assault upon him that all the whole Fort is yeelded to the divell and so evill words corrupt good manners If good words could amend evill manners it were excellent and so sometimes they doe by the blessing of God But on the other side there is a fearefull losse which is frequent and common for wheras once good manners mend evill a thousand times ill manners corrupt good for we have a divellish disposition in us till the Lord worke it out by his spirit and this divell is so false that if we want corruption rather then we will not be corrupted we will corrupt our selves and turne divels to our owne soules For what else are these common and daily fashions that are used in the world but a voluntary seeking after corruption Psal 4.2 as the Prophet saith Psalm 4. How long will ye seeke after lyes All these devices whereby we pamper this flesh of ours they are meer huntings after corruption that though corruption flee from us yet we runne after it and overtake it This pride and prancking of these poore tabernacles we carry about us which are nothing but dust and ashes These extraordinary eatings and drinkings These high surfettings These great and mighty spendings What are these but very voluntary running a whoring after our owne inventions and a seeking to be corrupted And because we thinke there is nothing without us to corrupt us therefore we will have it within us rather than we will want it Bern. 1 Tim. 6.9 Saint Bernard speaking of that place of the Apostle Those that will be rich fall into divers snares oh saith Bernard our rich men if they had heard him they would have wished they had had more snares and thinke themselves miserable because they have not So although they goe to hell they care not if they can but make themselves heavy laden with this thick clay Habac. 2.6 as the Prophet speakes They care for nothing else The like corruption is upon all men and especially in these dayes there was never more corruption of manners than in this last and sinfull age of the world of which the Lord foretold and we by lamentable experience finde it corruption growes so strongly every day The word Corruption signifieth in the best and most common notion to bring a thing to wormes to bring it to lice as the body of Herod by the stroke of the Angell for his proud speech was brought to Vermine and Lice in a moment So all things that are corrupted they grow to a mouldring out of which mouldering there growes wormes if the matter be vegetable or had any life in it corruption being in it selfe a meere alteration to a not being from a being As generation makes a thing to be that was not before so Salvianus Salvianus saith those things that be corrupted are not themselves any longer after they be corrupted So consequently in the manners of men when they be corrupted there is such an alteration and change that a man cannot say that this is the man We see by wofull experience how quicke corruption is that in a short time a man cannot know one to be the same A youth that hath beene educated in the feare of God for fourteene or fifteene yeares and is well grounded and settled in the schooles send him into another part of the world but one halfe yeare and many times all the frame and building of his former education will be utterly ruinate and the party so corrupted that a man would wonder at the beastlinesse and strangenesse of such a fatall change From hence come those frequent complaints every where in the Church of God there are so many blasts of adverse winde so many examples of filthinesse in the world that they change every thing and take away the glosse and beauty and perfection of it and instead of the Image of God they imbrace the picture of the divell and it is done before a man is aware so quickly are we deceived and so soone brought to destruction Bern. As Saint Bernard saith well of such What art thou come to now what a Saint hast thou beene in time past and what a divell art thou now turned too thou begunnest farre better than thou endest and the first time the first part of thy graces were more excellent than thy latter times are Oh what a great change there is how unlike is this man to that childe being a man to thy selfe now when thou wast a childe nothing is more fearfull then this Let our gold and silver corrupt let our garments corrupt let theeves breake through and steale them let all things without us corrupt But let us keepe our manners pure they are our best and choicest treasure that should sit in our mindes and keepe their residence in the Court of heaven in the soule and conscience God forbid that they should be corrupted or if they be let us labour to returne presently to grace wherby corruption may be amended and a reparation made by the Spirit of God Evill words corrupt good manners Where naturall corruption is it comes alway from a kinde of heat from a strange outward heat all corruption whether it be of fruits or the corruption of mens bodies or any other thing it comes with a certaine outward heat which frightens the naturall heat and overcomes it and so works all to a beastly and monstrous disease and so to a meere nothing at last Corruption is made in the tenderest things those that are more solid receive lesse corruption and endure longest As stones and trees because of the hardnesse and firmnesse of their
there is a spirituall body all the rest are included in this It is sowne in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is true if it be spirituall it must needs be incorrupt so It is sown in dishonour it is raised in honour It is certaine if it be raised a spirituall body And so for strength if it be spirituall it must needs be strong Therefore the Apostle concludes all in this It shall be raised a spirituall body But how a spirituall body Marke he saith not that the flesh of Gods Saints the bodies that shall be raised that they shall be spirits but spirituall bodies Still it shall be a body So that there is no change in the substance but onely in the qualities and properties Tertull. Saith Tertullian the Apostle doth not speak of any change of the substance of nature but of the glorious qualities that shall come unto it Surely saith hee there is nothing that riseth againe but that which was sowne and there is nothing sowne but that which is dissolved and rotten in the earth and there is nothing lies rotting in the earth but flesh therefore nothing shall rise again but the flesh For there was nothing that the sentence of God went upon but the flesh of Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne So St. Austin expounding the words In Tom. 5. Aug. Lib. 13. How shall they be spirituall Not because they shall cease to be bodies they are not therefore called spirituall as though they were turned spirits and ceased to be bodies but because they shall subsist with a living and quickning spirit and because they shall be made indwellers and inhabitants of heaven which is the place of spirits it shall then be the place for the bodies of men For now it is a strange paradoxe to say the body of a man should dwell in heaven and though we know that Christ hath it by a speciall priviledge yet there is no man can imagine how the bodie of a man should dwell in heaven in those pure skies in those bright regions and that the heavinesse of the body should not praecipitate it downe to the earth and cast it into the fire and to dismall events that should consume it But when the Lord shall change this corruption into incorruption the bodies of the Saints shall be the onely fit inhabitants of heaven therefore it is called spirituall because it shall dwell in heaven which is the place of spirits the body shall then be able to inhabit there therefore it is called spirituall as being fit to possesse those mansions that are destinated properly for spirits But Chrysostome makes a question here Saith he Chrysost What is this that thou sayest here blessed Apostle Dost thou say that the bodies of the children of God are not spirituall now are they all meerly animal now are they not spirituall how is it said that they are Temples of the holy Ghost if the holy Ghost dwell in them he makes them spirituall they are called spirituall men all the children of God and if they be spirituall men then they have spirituall bodies But the Father answers himselfe again It is true these bodies we carry about us now by the power of the holy Ghost are after a sort spirituall but that body which shall be then which he here speaks of shall be infinitely far more spirituall This is onely in inchoation in beginning in the first fruits that shall be in the summe and substance and fulnesse of perfection And St. Bernard If thou sayest our bodies shall rise againe thy meaning is not to take away the being of the body but to give it a new lustre as the face of Moses and as in the transfiguration of Iesus Exod. 34. For as Moses when God put that brightnesse upon his face that the people could not look upon it but he was faine to haye a vaile on his face his face was still the same but yet there was a change of glory there was an accession of brightness whereby it seemed a spirit rather then a common ordinary visage so the bodies of men that shall be raised there shall be such an accession and augmentation of glory and beauty and brightnesse that it shall rather seeme spirituall then otherwise And as it was in the Transfiguration of Christ Mar. 17. his garments shone that no Dier in the earth could make the like and his face shone as the sunne in his strength the face of Christ was all one his garments were the same he had the same physiognomie but onely there was a new accession of glory that came unto it So the bodies of the Saints they shall be all one the very same body shall be revived which hath suffered misery here and shall have a new glory put upon it and that very body shall have strength that here was weak and subject to death The Lord shall then cloathe it with glory and although it shall rise a spirituall body it is not in respect of the change of the substance but in regard of the augmentation of glory which shall accrew unto it It is raised a spirituall body So much of those two Attributes of the change from weaknesse to strength and from naturall to spirituall Now in the words following the Apostle comes to prove that such a thing there is as a naturall body and a spirituall body And this he doth to prevent objections partly lest men should think that he coyned new distinctions and divisions which is a thing faulty in the Church and partly lest men should be drowned in error by misconceiving his doctrine For the first If a man should have said unto him Where doe you learne this did you ever heare any man speak such a thing that there is a spirituall body Yes saith the Apostle there is both there is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body I will make the distinction good and prove it This teacheth us Vse that men ought to be carefull what distinctions they bring into the Church of God For as the Apostle saith to Timothy 1 Tim. 6.21 and to Titus Shun novelty of words and inventions shun them they are not to be admitted they destroy the faith and puzzle the understandings of all Gods children Vincentius Lirinensis Vincentius Lirinensis saith That although men ought to speak many things in the Church of God after a new fashion yet they ought to speak no new thing at all Therefore lest they should be offended with this distinction as though the Apostle had brought it out of his owne braine as though it were a new device of his owne hatching he is forced to make it good and to prove that there is such a thing because hee would not be thought an Inventer of new devices and a maker of new distinctions which is a plague in the Church of God throughout all ages Secondly another reason was this because hee would not suffer them to
fall into a grosse error which they might conceive by this doctrine of his For if it shall be raised a spirituall body why then say the heretiques Apollinarius Eunomius and such like then it is not the same For it is now a meere naturall body and what is so contrary as naturall and spirituall Animal and spirituall are clean contrary therefore the Scripture still bids us live after the spirit and distinguisheth betweene the sonnes of the flesh and the sons of the spirit there is nothing more contrary then these now it is impossible that a thing should be capable of that which is contrary Therefore they say if it shall be a spirituall body then it shall not be Idem corpus the same body Another crew say If they shall be spirituall bodies then they are not flesh and bloud and bones as these elementary bodies are that die and are committed to the ground but it shall be another thing made by God of a strange composure Against this the Apostle tells us that there is such a distinction of a naturall body and a spirituall body and yet none of these monsters follow neither For it is the pleasure of the great God to adde such excellencies to that body which was before dust and ashes and mortall and to draw such lines upon it to give it such beauty and perfection that it shall seeme rather a spirit then a body it shall be so full of quicknesse and motion and life and dexterity that it shall rather seeme a spirit then a body To speak comparatively Hence we learne That seeing the Apostle proves his distinction that it is not lawfull for any man to make of his owne head of his owne braine any generall principles or definitions or divisions or distributions concerning the doctrine of the Gospell but he must shew reason for it Then secondly what reason doth the Apostle give for it why It is also written Hee proves this his doctrine by the Scriptures and unlesse he could have proved it out of them he must have been subject to the censure of all these heretiques that all that they had passed upon him should have gone for good except he could have refuted them by the Scriptures So he tells them that It is written So that here we have a maine conclusion of our faith to hold to alwaies and to stick to that wee must beleeve no man further then the Scriptures If he will speak his own minde he may doe it for illustration or for arguments sake but to put the devices of his owne head and braine to goe for points of religion for matters of faith it is a damnable thing he must have no more credit then the Scriptures will afford him hee must make no distinctions and differences except it be found in the written word If this had been well observed the Church of God had never come to that miserable distraction that it hath been in for the space of these thousand yeares every Intruder still presuming to make his owne devices fundamentall to avert the points of religion to make distinctions such as man never saw in the Scriptures As to talk of Purgatory invocation of Saints and of other errors newly sprung up in these later times Such things as these have no kind of being in the Scriptures no nor any shew of being notwithstanding these proud imperious spirits will bring them upon the Church of God and lay a heavy yoak upon the people of God to beleeve them as if they were the very oracles of Almightie God himselfe Wee must take heed of these things Teach mee as far as thou wilt out of Gods booke but if thou teach me otherwise thou art a liar and no teacher thou art a seducer and an imposter and no pastor as St. Bernard Bernard and also Gregorie Gregorie saith Therefore this blessed Apostle he puts downe his proofe he will have them beleeve him no further then hee brings Scripture for it It is written saith he As if he should say I make not this distinction of a naturall body and a spirituall body I have it made to my hand for it is written And where is it written it is a hard thing to find that all the whole sentence is not to be found any where but the first part of it is written that the first Adam was made a living soule the other part is made up by the spirit of the Apostle understanding the difference betweene the first and the second Adam to make up the antithesis of that notable difference betweene the one and the other Some of the Fathers doe take it thus that the whole sentence may seeme to be written that oft-times in the Scripture things are said to be written and to be done which are not written nor done meaning not in their kinde but in their effects by some consequence As St. Chrysostom saith of this Chrysost from the reason and event of the thing it was written because that men did see every christian knows that Christ Iesus doth so farre passe and surmount the first Adam as God surpasseth man as the soule surpasseth the body therefore the event and consequent of the thing makes it as if it were written For God hath made it good and so hath set it as a sure writing in the world And so he gives instance from divers Scriptures in the like things As in Heb. 12.21 Heb. 12.21 the Apostle saith speaking of the terrour of Moses when he was in the mount when the Law was given the terror was so great that Moses said I feare exceedingly Now in the booke of Exodus Exod. 19. Chap. 19. where those things are related there is no such thing mentioned that Moses said any such words but the Glosse expounds it That it is certaine upon the deed upon the teror that Moses conceived he trembled It was a thing done although it were not spoken he did tremble So here also it may be said Although there be no such words as the second part of this sentence that the second Adam was made a living spirit yet de facto it is true For all the Church of God knowes and subscribes that there is a maine difference betweene them Such other places there are as that in Isay 7.14 Isay 7.14 A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a sonne and they shall call his name Emanuell Now this was never done de facto as St. Chrysostom observes Chrysost the people never called him so they called him Iesus not Emmanuel And although the Angell gave that name to the virgin yet the people used it not and yet saith St. Chrysostom though it were not done de facto yet it was done de jure it was done in right and reason for that the things themselves do send forth such a voice and testimony that he was Emmanuel God with us Therefore these Fathers think the meaning of the Apostle is this That although it were not
written in expresse words yet by the Spirit of God and by the demonstration God gave unto the world of Christ the later part was written as well in the mindes of men by the finger of the Holy Ghost as the former part was written in Gen. 2. But I take it the best sense of it is this and so the later Divines hold that the meaning of the Apostle is to make a comparison that as it is written the first Adam was made a living soule so I averre that the last Adam was made a quickning spirit So that the word It is written is to be understood of the first part onely and not of the later but the other I averre by the Spirit of God and by the power of the Gospell So that there is no man that need doubt of it hereafter but that there is infinite difference between the first and the second Adam To come to the sense of the words because I have been too troublesome in this I will be briefe The first man was made a living soule As if he should say he was made in a mutable changeable manner of perfection and it was in his owne free will to have stood and kept close to God if he would have been constant For then he should never have died But because hee would be trying conclusions and fall from his Maker therefore hee was animal a living soule although God made him for another purpose if he would have kept the place God set him in Secondly he was made such an animal as stood in need of second causes hee stood in need of meat and drink of rest and labour and sleepe and such things as these Thirdly he was made a living soule not a life-making soule living in himselfe but not giving life unto others But the Sonne of God was made a quickning Spirit not onely to have life in himselfe but to give life unto all his followers So that Adam took life but he could not give it Christ took life as being man from the Deity and he gives it as being God not onely the life of nature but the life of grace and glory And so he became in every thing a quickning and glorious Spirit The first Adam was made a living soule That is worldly minding the world looking to the earth he was to dig the earth to delve in the garden he was made for that purpose and for other worldly purposes Toward the center was his aspect but Christ was of another making hee was all for spirit all for heaven and heavenly affaires for the businesse of his Father for the reclaiming of soules for the pardoning of sinnes for the working of miracles for the gracious concurrence of those sweet principall meetings of mercy and truth which meet together in him So that the difference by this time appeares manifestly It is said Adam was made a living soule that is to have life in himselfe but not to diffuse and extend it to any other Christ Iesus was made the author of life and of all that we all hope for and pray for of life eternall of happinesse and glory But here are divers questions to be resolved which I will but propound and name unto you and so passe them ouer Quest 1 First it may be demanded because it is said that Adam was made a living soule and that Christ was made a quickning spirit whether Christ were not a living soule as well as Adam and whether Adam were not a quickning spirit as well as Christ And certainely these things are true if we take them in their kinde they be both true For Christ was not onely made a quickning spirit but he had a body as Adam had and hee was a living soule as well as Adam And Adam was not onely made a dull and dumpish thing given unto worldly matters but he was made a quick although not a quickning spirit Therefore for the first we must understand that it is true that the Lord Christ was made a living soule as well as Adam For there is a grosse errour of Eunomius Eunomius which thought that Christ had no reasonable soule but that his Divinity was his soule that it was in stead of a soule and that hee had no other soul but that This is a monstrous abortion for if Christ had not taken our whole nature hee had not saved our whole nature Now the best and chief part of our nature is the soule and it was the soule chiefly and principally that Christ came to save Therefore it is certaine that he tooke our soule as well as hee tooke our flesh and so was made a living soule as well as Adam And it appears also by this in that he had two wills in him as he had two natures the nature of God and the nature of man united in one person So likewise he had two wills the will of God and the will of man yet he subjected alway the lower will unto the higher Not my will but thy will be fulfilled not as I will but as thou wilt But the will of his manhood appeared in this thas as he was a man he was afraid of death Mat. 26.42 he desired that the cup might passe from him he would not have died at that instant yet as he was alway obedient to God the Father he desires that the upper will might prevaile and saith Not my will but thine be fulfilled Let the will of God prevaile and let the will of man be ruled and over-ruled Therefore as Christ had two wills so he had two natures and by consequent the full nature of God and man Or else if hee had not taken the soule of man as well as the body hee could not have delivered the whole nature of man the principall part whereof is the Soule But here is the difference although Christ were made a living soule as Adam was yet hee was more than so hee was not made for that purpose as an ordinary living soule but he had an accession of the glory and grace and strength of the Deity to make this living soule sublimate to perfection to make it capable of unspeakable mysteries which Adam had but in a poore pittance in a low condition hee had a living soule indeed well qualified and adorned with innocencie and the power of originall justice and a power to have life and grace and immortalitie if hee had kept and continued in the commandement but he had no higher matters hee had nothing in him whereby of necessitie he might abstaine from sinne but that he might sinne and be damned for it But in Christ there was an absolute necessitie of holinesse and perfection and of all the parts in him which was not in Adam Quest 2 For the second Question whereas it is said Hee was a quickning spirit Apollinarius Apollinarius inferred upon this that he had a phantasticall body and not a true body This is as grosse as the former for if Christ must take
hee was come there hee teacheth and converseth with the people hee goes not about his work upon the sudden The newes comes he is dead and buried Let him lie in his grave a long time that the glory of God may the more appeare Let him lie the first second and third day and the Lord comes not Upon the fourth day when all men gave him for stinking and desperate and that there was no hope of any good to bee done upon him then the Lord comes to work When Martha his sister had given over all hope and told Christ shee knew that hee should rise againe at the resurrection but for any other rising she never dreamed of or imagined that Well then when all things seemed to be senslesse and against reason and possibility then the power of God began to work And because Lazarus was so strongly held by death foure dayes therefore the stronger was the hand of God upon him in raysing him from death That the strength of death might be encountred and overcome and countermanded by the higher strength and arme of the Almighty it now gave way and made a passage to the arme of the Lord to work a mighty deliverance So still the misery of the child of God works for good and all things work for the best to those that love God Rom. 8.28 Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly so we shall beare the image of the heavenly This is a great incouragement to us to beare Vse Wee are impatient we cannot endure any thing but we see that wee must beare and if wee looke for the image of the heavenly we must be content to beare the image of the earthly We must be content to be sick we must be content to be poore to be persecuted to be every way miserable and wretched We must be content to be tempted by the tempting devill and oft times to be foiled by him and to bee overcome in sinne and shamefull actions and courses We must be content with the Christian agony and the bloody sweat that Christ had in the garden at his passion We must beare these things it is the image of the earthly It is the condition of the other life the bearing of the heavenly And except wee have the one we cannot have the other except we beare the image of the earthly we shall not beare the image of the heavenly But here it may be objected that Infants have not this image Yes reason tells us they doe For in their death in their sicknesse in their distractions and strange convulsions to which they are subject they beare the image of the earthly although not in so great a measure as men of groweth doe yet they have for their tender yeares a fearefull yoake laid upon them which is mortality and all the wayes that tend to death To conclude this first point the proposition Let us mingle the one with the other and beare both If thou bee troubled in this world in any sort inwardly or outwardly If thou be troubled in conscience for sinne if thou bee troubled with enemies art thou troubled in thy fortunes in thy state in the world art thou troubled with sicknesse of body remember it is nothing but thine owne image Thus thou art made wilt thou deny thine owne face wilt thou deny thy owne name wilt thou not take that which thou art borne unto art thou ashamed of thine inheritance it is that which thy Father hath left thee therefore beare it And withall to comfort thy selfe beare it with this hope and lively assurance that thou shalt beare a better image one day The galley-slaves that serve the Turks in their galleys if they could but think that at seven yeares end some Christian would come and deliver them they would be the better affected and would cheare their mindes especially if they could be assured of it If Iacob serve the churle Laban seven yeares Gen. 29. if he think he shall have Rachell at the end of it hee thinks it but like unto seven dayes and with patience he comforts himselfe in the Lord and staies his leisure and is content that God shall use him unto his hand as it pleaseth him This is the true constitution of a pure mind therefore let us sweeten these outward worldly miseries with the expectation of future joy and the promises which God hath made to us in his holy Word There is no griefe so great but if wee tie heaven unto the end of it it is light As the Apostle saith This short moment any affliction Rom. 8.18 is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed Let us put them together and the one will bee swallowed up in the other For as we have borne the image of the earthly so shall wee beare the image of the heavenly Oh! when shall that blessed day appeare So must the Christian man aspire and hunger and thirst after the righteousnesse of God and after his blessed kingdome Wee mourne saith the Apostle as long as we are from Christ in this body we would faine see the consummation of the promise Why then there is no meanes but one that is by incessant prayer by continuall clamours to call upon God to crie unto him for it The cries and clamours of Gods Saints must bring Christ from heaven againe unto earth to make up the fulnesse of the promise which he hath condescēded unto in his holy Word This must be the use we must make of this doctrine That as wee are patiently to endure the image of the earthly man to endure the misery that sinne hath contracted and brought upon us that we also be faithfull and hopefull to cry and to call unto God for the sweet things that are reposed and laid up for us in the glory of the Gospel So much for the Proposition Now for the explanation in verse 50. Verse 50. This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of heaven neither can corruption inherit incorruption In these words the Apostle doth prevent those questionings and objections that simple men might make against this doctrine They might say that he taught in the cloudes that hee spake so as that they knew not what hee meant What doe you meane by the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly we have heard of no such words we know no such matter For this the Apostle tells them that hee speaks out of the phrase of Scripture hee speaks it out of Genesis For hee had said before that Adam was made a living soule and that Christ was made a quickening spirit and so following the course of the creation he saith there was an image which at the first was heavenly but it was defaced by mans fault and so it became earthly and by consequence all of Adams blood were like their progenitor they all tooke part of the inheritance although it were against their will and they bore the image of
that shall not sleepe that is they shall not die after the common maner of death And then for the second opinion the second sense that Reades it We shall all rise againe That is false for there are none that shall rise but those that were dead and because all shall not die therefore all shall not rise as I said before in the opening of the Text. So that this is the proper and true sense of the Text and it is that also which is in all the Greek Copies The other is onely in some old Latin Copies and is diversly taken and mistaken by the Fathers This therefore is the Apostles meaning We shall not all sleepe that is wee shall not all die after this order and maner of death but wee shall all bee changed Those that bee in their graves shall be changed to incorruption to immortality and life and they that never come to the grave shall bee changed another way which shall be semblable and answerable unto the death that wee have So that all shall be changed yea not onely the godly to glory but the reprobate and wicked shall bee changed to a dureability to indure the torment which the justice of God hath allotted to them for their deserts from all eternity This Reading therefore is that that we must rest in as being the most proper resolution of the Apostles mind who giving a reason of that hee had said before that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdome of God No saith hee they shall not inherit it but by a kind of change and mutation not after the fashion as we doe God hath reserved for them another kind of translation by mutation not by buriall and putrefaction as our bodies doe Now I come to the words The first thing is this that he saith Behold I shew you a mystery Mystery is a word derived from the Hebrew Mister or Mistar and it signifieth a hidden thing or else from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some would have it of shutting or closing of the eye because that all eyes are shut up and closed to the mysteries of God and it lies not in the power of any eye to understand the secrets of the Almighty Secret things belong unto God Deut. 29 29. but revealed things belong unto us and to our children saith Moses The Gospel is full of these mysteries and there is nothing so mysticall and hard to bee understood as these things concerning the renewing and reparation of the world For the things that bee done in common experience be nothing mysticall but those that we looke to by faith those things that we apprehend by hope they are all full of mysteries But the blessed God hath revealed them to his Apostles to S. Paul and to the rest and to the Ministers of his Word By reading the Scriptures he hath revealed that which is farre remote from the sense and understanding of any mortall and carnall man The mysteries of the Kingdome must bee revealed Behold I tell you a mystery The Lord hath told it me and I must tell it to you againe it is a thing that I am acquainted with by the Spirit of God which hath revealed it to mee It was once as strange to me as it is to you but God hath delivered it to me that by my ministery it may come unto you Behold I shew you a mystery The word signifieth three things in the Scripture as Chrysostome noteth One is when by an outward visible thing some other invisible thing is signified and represented So in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper where the water in Baptisme signifieth the precious blood of Christ and the wine and bread in the Lords Supper signifieth the breaking of the body and the powring forth of the blood of that emmaculate Lamb that was offered up for us Thus the Sacraments bee called holy mysteries hidden and secret things which the world cannot understand because they deride them because they doe not affect them but they are onely knowne unto the chosen ones of God In that sense the word is not here used for the Apostle speaks not of a mystery here by any outward thing to signifie some inward matter as in the Sacrament Another way mystery is taken for a partiall or halfe esteeme or conceit of any thing we speake of So in 1 Cor. 13. the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 13.12 We see in a dark mystery wee see in a cloude wee see in a riddle in a dreame Wee understand in part we know in part As if hee should say All that we see in the providence and guidance of God here in this world is full of mystery some part of it wee know and some part wee know not so that the partiall knowledge of man because it attaines not to fulnesse it is called seeing in a mystery seeing in a darke view But neither in that sense doth the Apostle use it here in this place The third sense is saith St. Chrysostome when a man speaks something against the common sense and reason which the wisedome of man cannot attaine unto and reach nor would never have dreamed of And this is it which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mystery that is I shew you a matter which you would hardly have conceived with your selves or that you will scarcely believe when I tell it to you I tell you that there are many men that shall never die nor never rise againe and yet they shall have their part of glory and be accepted and come to happinesse as well as you This paradox which is contrary to common opinion contrary to common sense and which is above the common reach and apprehension of man the Apostle calls a mystery in this place And hee hath great reason to put an ecce before it behold I tell you c. Vse To teach us that where any thing is mysticall in the Gospel and in the Scripture we ought to double our files to double our attention and to raise our spirits to hearken to that which is so secret For it is all our desires and it is naturally ingraffed in us to heare of newes to heare newes of State newes of the greatest importance Wee seeke we labour we travaile and wee sharpen one another to know what reports there are in the greatest importments Much more should wee be thus affected in the matters of God and of our owne salvation Therefore the Apostle satisfieth us and saith I will tell you you seeke for it and you long to know this you make many doubts and scruples in your hearts behold I will resolve you in one word The condition of the world that shall bee when Christ shall come it shall be farre different from this It is a mystery to tell you but it is infallibly true It hath been revealed unto me by the Spirit of God and I will open it to you the people of God And the
which is now accomplished but in one the Lord Iesus hath it alone in one Now it is in the first fruits then it shall be in the whole Harvest then it shall be made good to the whole Church which is now only performed to the head of the Church that Death is swallowed up into victory This I take to be the sense of the words To proceed in order First we are to consider it as the words lye and not as the logicall rule would carrie us For logically we have A subject A predicate And a Vinculum or Copulate The subject is corruption This corruptible The predicate is a certaine change it must have this corruptible must take and put on incorruption And the copulate is the oportet it must needs be so and this mortall must put on immortality And then after that there is a blessed comfort that the Church of God shall receive In the meane time shee receives it as being certaine that it shall be but then she shall receive it as a full payment at that time That Scripture which said Death is swallowed up into victory It shall then be utterly accomplished Wherein we are to consider First that the Apostle confirmes and strengthens himselfe by Scripture by that which is written Secondly where it is written Thirdly the substance and matter that is written That Death is swallowed up into victory Where againe we are to consider three termes First what that is that is swallowed Death and all evill and mischiefe Secondly the terme to which it is swallowed or consumed to victory Thirdly the efficient cause who swallowes it and what it is that swallowes Death that must needs be understood the death of the Sonne of God the death of Christ swallowes up the death of men into an absolute victory And then the answer to that question How is Death swallowed up in victory seeing it every day swallowes us up and consumes us how then is Death swallowed up himselfe And that is to be answered in these words because the time is not yet come When this corruption shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality then shall be fulfilled this saying Every thing is in its own time when all things are done that should bee done when all things are accomplished that the Lord shall send before then that shall come after But we have it now onely in hope we have it onely in the first fruits we have it in some part we have it in the head then we shall have it in all the members We have it in some few that were raised with Christ to be witnesses of his Resurrection and they are pawnes for all the rest When this corruption hath put on incorruption and this mortall c. Of these parts briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first to follow the order of the words He saith this corruptible and this mortall speaking of the bodies of men For the soule of man is neither corruptible nor mortall as heretofore wee have touched Therefore those that understand these things of the Resurrection of the spirit of the Resurrection of the soule from vice to newnesse of life they are extremely mistaken and they abuse the word of grace which is here propounded unto us For the Apostle speakes of that part which is corrupt and mortall that the glory of God shall be shewed upon it and he saith this very body this Identicall thing this Idem numero not another body in stead of this but this which is now so corrupt The body shall remaine the same although the accidents and qualities shall be rare and glorious which shall accrew unto it yet it shall be one and the selfe same body As S. Chrysostome saith Chrysost the selfe same it shall be in the selfe same inches and quantity although the qualities shall be altred and it shall have gracious indowments yet they shall be the same substance they shall be the same bodies And againe it is to be observed that hee useth two words together hee repeates it This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality And this hee doth not without very good reason For it is no vaine repetition of the same thing twice over it is not S. Pauls purpose nor his custome so to doe but hee notes in us two certaine infirmities which the Lord shall stay and stanch at that day by that glorious vesture and garment of incorruption and immortality which he shall put upon us First then our body is corrupt that is changing from one forme to another it cannot continue in the same stay And secondly it is mortall that is subject to utter destruction to be altogether without any forme The first is the mutability which the matter whereof we consist cannot endure You understand that in all things that are made there are two great principles the matter and the forme besides the privation The matter is so infinitly capable and desirous of new formes that it cannot endure long to stay in one state still the matter desires a new forme to come upon it as being weary of that which it hath borne before We see it in all things in nature And though God worke his owne will and his gracious wonders by that yet notwithstanding it shewes the variety and disposition of the matter which is still capable and hath an appetite after a new forme and desires to be changed In the fruits of the earth The seed would not continue so a seed but when it is cast into the ground it comes to sprout and to spring and from thence it comes to be a little tree and so a greater and then it comes to grow backward it comes downe againe and comes to be a dead thing We see it in our selves First there is the matter of our nature then wee doe not so continue but it becomes an embrio then it comes from that forme to be a childe and when it is weary of that it comes higher So God brings things to perfection and then back againe to imperfection I speake onely of the variety in the materiall cause which as the Philosopher speaks is the devourer of formes it is ever desiring a new forme to be set upon it So God teacheth us by this that the very appetite of the matter shall carrie us to the certainty of a new forme which shal be set upon us in that blessed day because that this corruptible matter is ever changeable and changing formes It is certaine that God shall then stop the appetite of the matter and give it a forme which shall never be changed and that it shall never desire to change Here nature never stayes nor is never content with any forme but wee come from our prime matter to childhood from childhood wee passe along to youth and youth sends us to middle age middle age brings us to dotage and dotage sends us to our graves
point for it the first day of the weeke were the Lords day when Sermons and prayer and communicating in the Sacrament were made and received It follows that the Church had changed the Sabbath day from the seventh day unto the eight and so we are to resolve our selves against these innovators how this might be done for assure your selves although we be well resolved in the thing and long experience hath taught us to be quiet and to settle our selves in the authoritie of the Church yet there is nothing that is of weaker authoritie then the change of the Sabbath and if these new Hereticks can prevaile with us in other things it is no marvell if they prevaile in this for there is nothing that is left upon so weake a foundation that hath so slender proofe as this which makes them to get ground upon unstable soules that are their hearers being a multitude of men where there is varietie of affections and imbecillitie of judgement and every man is carried away with every blast of doctrine as children to and fro no marvell if they have sowne such seeds of pestilent schisme by these contrary blasts which are every where studied Therefore you shall understand that the holy Apostles presently after our Lords ascention into heaven The Sabbath changed by the Apostles they did ordaine that the meetings of Christians for the Sabbath that those exercises should be upon the eight day of the weeke I meane upon the eight day from the creation upon the Iews Munday which now is called Sunday or our Lords day and those feasts that formerly were wont to fall upon any day of the weeke as Easter day which was kept according to the course of the Moone and if it fell upon a Wednesday or a Thursday or the like still it was Easter day the Passeover day the feast of sweet bread when the paschall Lambe was offered But the Apostles changed it that it should alwayes be on the Sunday upon the day of our Lords resurrection and Whitsuntide which followes after Easter being a moveable Feast and as Easter was still that was to be referred to it now the feast of Pentecost was referred by the Apostles to the Lords day the day of our Lords resurrection our Sunday And this was not the devise of Pius Pius the first Pope or Dicta the first Pope as some have imagined which was many yeares after our Lords ascention but it is certaine it was the ordinance of the Apostles themselves as we may see in two famous places for we have but two as Beza Beza saith well in Acts 20.10 Act. 20 10. and in this place In these two places we observe that liberty that the Lord gave to his Church 1 Cor. 16.2 to change the seventh day to the eighth And whereupon upon what ground did they take this liberty for we have no direct word from the mouth of our Saviour for it but they did it onely upon the revelation of the spirit of God and they had such firme arguments and reasons as might sway them against the common tenents of the Iewish slavery and bondage whereby they were tyed and bound to the observation of their Sabbath The first maine reason that the Church had for the changing of the Sabbath 1 To shew the prerogative of Christ it was to shew the prerogative of the Sonne of God which saith of himself The sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath also he is Lord even of the Sabbath Mark 3. Mark 3. Now therefore if he were Lord of the Sabbath then it lay in his power to change the time of the Sabbath the morall action he changed not that alway continueth we must have a day to worship God in we should worship God alway but the publique worship of God is the proper end and office of the Sabbath I but for the time why it should be upon the seventh day or on the eight day this was left in the Lordship of Christ being the Lord of the Sabbath which therefore could tell what he did when hee would rejourne the Sabbath to some other time where it might be a figure of some better signification therefore to shew the glory of the sonne of man the Church thought good to change the time of the Sabbath to another time 2 In remembrance of the work of redemption Secondly there was another reason as Athanasius Athanasius observeth upon those words of Christ All things are given to me of my Father he extends it thus far even to the change of the Ceremonies of Moses Law now saith he there are two great workes of God which are to be considered in their substance and in their ceremony The first is the worke of creation And the second is the worke of redemption wherin the world was recreated and made anew For the first the worke of creation the old Sabbath was instituted and ordained of God in remembrance of his worke for God rested the seventh day from all the worke that he had wrought and created in the sixe dayes before he rested the seventh day and blessed it and hallowed it for man to remember the workes he had created in the sixe working dayes and that man should also worke in sixe dayes as he had done and rest upon the seventh day for as the Lord had wrought sixe dayes so he saith sixe dayes shalt thou labour for all the life of man must be conformed to the example of Almighty God so now there being these two great workes the one of creation the other of redemption wee are to consider whether of these two are the greater and surely we shall finde the worke of redemption is a greater matter then the worke of creation When the Lord created the world by his omnipotent power he did but speake the word and it was done The Lord did but say let there be light and there was light Let there be a firmament and there was a firmament Let there be sea and land and there was presently sea and land and every thing else necessary But when he wrought redemption it was not done by a word but it cost the bloud it drew the bloud from the heart of his deare Sonne for it could not be done by way of omnipotency because it must be done by way of justice the justice of God must be satisfied which could not be satisfied but the sinner must loose his life which he had forfeited to God and God himselfe must doe it the person of God must take upon him the nature of man to suffer death for sinfull man that had deserved death everlasting this is the worke of recreation and redemption Now saith Athanasius these workes had their severall ages the worke of the creation was to be remembred untill Christ came to worke the worke of redemption and when he was come then the age of that was to passe away it was determined and terminate in Christ And now
and the creame of that which he hath bestowed on men when he cals for it for a man to serve God with branne when he hath bestowed flower upon him it is an ungratefull retribution and unjust and it brings a plague and a curse upon the residue upon the stocke that remaines So much for that point that it was the Apostles purpose upon condition that their collection were faire and worthy that it might be thought fit for his presence he would go with it Wherein we see and may gather from the generall that mens mindes and affections are to be stirred up with strong words and motives or else charitie is so cold of it selfe that it will be brought to little or nothing We see here the Apostle Saint Paul he begges closely but yet very strongly and efficaciously for the Saints of God that were at Ierusalem for he puts them in minde thus that whereas he was so willing to go and to shew himselfe in the cause all the fault was in them if he did not and whereas the brethren would take it more gratefully and more acceptable if he should come with it the presence of the Apostle Paul would bee very acceptable to them Therefore he saith if they will looke to this that their collection shall be worthy that it shall beseeme his presence then he will do it or else hee would not He would be loath to loose his labour to go about a small unworthy pittance that beseemed him not therefore hee would have it something like himselfe something beseeming an Ambassador of Christ that he might go as the common Provost for the people of God to give them not onely their spirituall but temporall food so herein he gives them a close exhortation and stirres up their minds to put their hands to their purses once againe that they might augment that which before they had collected sparingly that so it might be carried by the hand of the Apostle as a thing which was registred and set downe in heaven as a thing that God tooke notice of and which he would reward every particular giver for and as it was a thing given for the sake of Christ so it should bee carried and delivered by Saint Paul the Minister and messenger of Christ Now after this he comes to a familiar promise S. Pauls promise which he makes to them concerning his comming to Corinth After he had dispatched the matter of the Churches in generall hee tels them now that whereas there was a particular motion made that they would have him come to Corinth to redresse certaine abuses which were crept into that Church he answers them now and tels them that he will come yet because he had another journey to passe he must first go to Macedonia yet in the meane time he was comming to them he came to them by his letters and by his Epistles for this is the third time saith he that I am comming to you in the second Epistle which is meant of his Epistles he came to them by his letters as well as by his person but now he tels them that he will come in person and satisfie their desire for the weake brethren in Corinth were daily laden with such a number of Hereticks and Imposters and those that were puffed up because they thought the Apostle would not come thither I say the weake brethren were afraid they should bee over-quelled with the number and strength of these their opposers and therefore they desired the Apostle to interpose himselfe and his authoritie that thereby things might be redressed and reformed I will come unto you Concerning this comming of the Apostle you have two conditions in this Epistle the one as a matter of feare the other a matter of promise the one of threatning the other of comfort in 1. Cor. 4.15.16 you shall see there that there were divers seducers in Corinth that were secure that the Apostle would not come among them Therefore they dispersed their seducing doctrine upon that presumption that the Apostle would not come thither they thought either that he durst not because of the multitude of opposites that were there or else that he could not because of the multitude of affaires that imployed him and upon this they grew impudent and carelesse in their seducing courses therefore saith the Apostle Some are puffed up as though I would not come but I will come and when I come I will not onely know the words of them that are puffed up but the power for the kingdome of God consists not in speech but in power and might and evidence and efficacie of the holy Spirit And then againe hee saith in the latter end of the Chapter What will you that I shall come to you with a rodde or in the spirit of meeknesse Both these places as we see make his comming to be a matter of threatning and commination As Saint Austin saith If thou wilt come unto us with a rodde come not to us at all except thou come otherwise then with a rodde come not at all But here now as Chrysostome saith Chrysost in Ep. 1. ad Cor. c. 4. ver ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he speakes more gently more calmly and quietly for he tels them then in an holy passion in anger that hee would come and he would come to their cost to their shame and reproofe but now having given them these gentle directions in all things hee begins to returne to the disposition of a cockering and indulgent father and hee tels them that he will come by way of promise he will come to their great comfort to the reformation of the Church but it shall be in that modestie and meeknesse as that no man shall take himselfe to be offended I will come This place with divers other of like nature doth confirme unto us the necessitie of Ecclesiasticall visitation It is needfull I say Ecclesiasticall Visitatiâ—n prov d. that there should bee some superiour some stranger and those that bee farre off to come at some times to visit the state of every Church And this is no devise of man but the ordinance of God himselfe and it is not out of a kinde of domineering as foolish men would perswade themselves which thinke that the Bishops visitation is like the visitation of God in a plague or pestilence they are not ashamed thus to open their mouthes against all good order in the Church but I say it is for no such end that men should domineere over the flocke of Christ nor is it to maintaine ambition much lesse is it for greedinesse and lucre for desire of gaine or profit there is no such thing intended by it but for this purpose that those things that bee corrupt and sicke in the body of Christ should be cured and healed and there is manifold necessitie of this whether wee consider Necessity of eccles visitation The slownesse of the Churches building Or the sicklenesse and inconstancie of the
and cast him into prison yet his word and power and spirit was stronger than they all and convinced and confuted them that although they seemed to themselves to be conquerers yet they were vanquished for so the Word of God useth to doe to conquer the conquerers and although they thought they took him prisoner yet he took them prisoners for it is a horrible victory that a man gets against the truth a man were better to be taken by the truth than to overcome and quell it These things I note as not any way prejudiciall to the authority or antiquity of those great Fathers and Interpreters but being as I think the more cleare exposition the truer meaning of the Text that he purposed to goe to Ierusalem by the feast of Pentecost and that was but seven weeks off now and although hee purposed if matters had been in place to have staid a while at Ephesus yet still his mind was at Ierusalem where the door was opened because of the aboundance of people that flocked and came thither and the adversaries were so many that it exceeded all faith to make relation of for the Iewes were bound thrice in the yeare all that were above 15. yeares old in the neare countries and all that were above 20. yeares old in far countries they were all bound thrice in the yeare to present themselves before the Lord in Ierusalem and they were such an infinite multitude that a man would wonder that the Land was not over-runne with them like grashoppers and destroyed by their being there But wee are too narrow to consider the blessings of God upon that Land for besides this that they were men of a very sparing and moderate dyet and cared not so much for soft beds but were content to lie in the fields to lie in tents nor they cared not for variety of fare any thing was sufficient for them Wee see that faith and credit makes this good in the History of Iosephus who as I said reports that there were nine millions at one Passeover Wee see the possibility of it also in King Iehosaphats time that had eleven hundred thousand men and upwards that did alway wait upon him besides those that were in his strong gallies that were men of warre as we see in 2 Chron. 17. 2 Chron. 17. Now if he were able to maintain such a number of men it may well be thought that when the generall concourse of that people was from all the parts and kingdomes of the world that there must be an infinite masse of people If hee had above one million daily attending upon him surely the severall parts of the world would furnish it to the number that Iosephus speaks of And it is not to be disputed how the land could beare them how it could nourish them these things wee are not to question but to understand that the blessing of God was mightily poured forth upon that Nation It is apparant I say in 2 Chron. 17. that Iehosaphat had so many hundred thousand men alway at his command So then the Apostle saith here a doore was opened there were so many men and so many adversaries for the most part therefore his minde was set and his spirit was inflamed so much the more to throw himselfe into the danger and to cast himselfe into the front of the battaile because he knew he was secure of the victory although he were overcome by the troublesome world yet he knew he should overcome in the quarrell of Christ that the truth of God should prevaile against them and chaine the chainers So much for the story 2 Part. The Church of God cannot want adversaries Now for the common induction that wee are to make out of this we learne that the Church of God and the truth of God can never want enemies wee must look still for a great number of adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle wee are made for this purpose In 1 Cor. 4. 1 Cor. 4. I am perswaded saith the Apostle that God hath set us the last Ministers of the Gospell he hath set us out to be the off-scouring of the world the scorne of the people to be a theatre and stage for men and Angels to gaze upon And Simeon when he had the babe our Lord Iesus Christ in his armes he saith of him that hee was borne to be a stumbling stone to be a marke of contradiction hee was borne to have adversaries No sooner could the Gospell peepe out into the world then it had a number of adversaries and enemies to tread and trample it downe againe Those persecutions that were under the first Emperours after Christ the ten bloudy persecutions they witnesse what great adversaries the poore truth of Christ had And the Church of the Iewes which the Apostle called before him Acts 28. Acts 28. when they were convented and called together by the Apostle they told him that this new heresie the doctrine of the Gospell of Christ Iesus which they accounted heresie they knew for a certaine that it was every where spoken against that it was every where gainsaid It is an easie matter for lies to prevaile in the world the sonnes of darknesse are predestinated to bee drowned in darknesse to vanish in their owne dreames and so the lies of one Philosopher may passe upon another and they may joyne and blend them together and live in quiet and peace and yet all be lies But the pure truth of God and the sincere light of the Gospel it can indure no such Egyptian smoaks but it will shine bright forth of it selfe and therefore it cannot bee suffered for the Devill the Prince of darknesse he doth alway shew himselfe against the Lord of light and against the Gospel of light still either to extinguish it if possibly he can or at least to eclipse and dazle the light of it or to immure it in cloudes that it may not appeare to the sonnes of men It was the fortune of all truth ever to be beaten downe by liars but yet the Lord hath given it this victory It runnes the same course with Christ for hee died and was buried three dayes but hee rose againe so the truth which is his daughter the daughter of the Trinity the sister of the Sunne the brightnesse of the world although it bee for a time obscured and damped by the wickednesse of the Devils instruments and such miscreants yet in time it riseth againe it selfe by the power of God it is raised from the dead after that never more to be outed and undone but still to shine and fill the Hemisphere Therefore this should teach us Vse that men must not be discouraged in the worke of the Ministery because of the noise and tumult of the adversaries he that is for Christ he must feare no rumors but in good reports and bad reports and through prosperity and mischiefe he must make a way unto him that he seeks for of
is so opposite but God can reclaime him This appeares by many examples in the Scripture Saul was a ravening Wolfe against the flocke of Christ hee came afterward to be a gracious Pastor and feeder of the flock of Christ Manasses caused the streets of Ierusalem to runne with blood afterward he came in and was a true convert to God These things are commonly knowne unto us for if sinners had beene desperate wee had never beene saved being all sinners We know by experience of our selves that there is no man desperate because the grace of God hath abounded to us wee know that the hand of God is not shortned but the same grace that enlightned us it will enlighten them in due time if it please him to call them Therefore in the middest of all hostile opinion we should still maintaine peace and a good hope of those that are our very adversaries God may call them and make them better if they be enemies now God may make them friends if he see good for the Lord can turn the hearts of men The hearts of men are in the hand of the Lord he turnes them as it pleaseth him Though they be professed enemies of religion the Lord can turne them there is no man so wild but the Lord can put a snaffle in his nose and a hooke in his jawes and bring him back againe there is no heart so stubborn but the Lord is able to make it yeeld he can bring water out of the flint stone and can make the wildernesse a standing well There is nothing impossible to the Lord the mighty Cedars of Lebanon are at his command although they stand so proudly as though they would stand there in despight of their Creator yet the Lord can dismount them and bring them low as the bramble of the field The mighty hand of the Lord works all things according to his power and according to his blessed will We must not therefore think peremptorily of any man we must indeed think him for the present to be wicked and ungodly and a vagabond as long as he is thus but still reserve our thoughts with a condition of changeing and hope for it for the Lord is able to change even the wild branches that are planted into the naturall olive tree that as they came in beyond all hope so the branches that are lopped off that a man would think could never receive juice or nourishment againe the arme of the Lord is able to plant them Iewes shall be called The Jewes that are the enemies of Christ they shall be replanted againe and set in their native stock and bring forth fruit in such abundance and glory as no nation under heaven shall be compared with the Iewes The summe of all is this A Christian must know that he hath to buckle in the world with adversaries he must not dreame of peace he must not promise quietnesse to himselfe but where he doth best there he must looke for most opposition hee must looke for the devill in the middest of his auditory in the middest of the Church where prayer and preaching is Where Iehoiada the High-priest stands at the Altar there sathan stands at his right hand and though the Angel say The Lord rebuke thee the Lord rebuke thee yet he will not leave his station for all that Therefore a man must take up his resolution and say This I will doe though all the powers of hell resist it or else he layes his hand to the plough and looks back and makes himselfe unworthy of the Gospell Simile It is the nature of Camomile the more men tread upon it the more and the better it growes so the Word and the Gospell of Christ it grows the better where there are more adversaries it grows never so well as when it is imbrued in bloud The bloud of the Martyrs being the seed of the Church The Saints of God are never so high in spirit nor never so well affected to salvation and to heaven as when they are most incumbred with stumbling blocks in the world happy is he that can leap over them or else passe by them for none shall be so happy as not to meet with them It was the condition of Christ and the Prophets before us and it shall be the condition of all after us Therefore we must desire God to sanctifie our adversities and that which shall oppose us for we are sure to have them onely let us desire God to turne them to good as all things work to the best to those that love and fear the Lord which the Lord grant unto us for Iesus Christ his sake To whom c. FINIS